Details
of a new law issued by China’s supreme court are bound to make loose
talkers on Sina Weibo and other social media platforms think twice
before speaking freely. The law says that any libelous posts or messages
will be considered “severe” breaches of the law
if they are visited or clicked on more than 5,000 times or forwarded
(or “retweeted,” in Western parlance) more than 500 times. Those found
guilty could face up to three years in jail, reports Reuters, citing Chinese state media.

As
if that weren’t alarming enough, the threshold for being charged with
this crime includes offenses as vague and subjective as “damaging the
national image” and “causing adverse international effects.”

The law is the latest attempt to crack down on “black PR firms,” companies that make money from removing unflattering information from
the internet. Among other things, black PR firms often target
companies, spreading gossip or misinformation about them, and then
approaching them for payment in exchange for removing the smear
campaign. It’s a big business; as TechinAsia pointed out recently, the
Sina Weibo accounts controlled by a huge black PR firm that was just
busted had a total audience of 220 million followers.

As
Caixin reports, since the campaign against “rumor-mongering” and
“spreading false information” picked up in June, Shanghai police have
opened more than 380 cases, while Henan police have investigated a
whopping 463 cases, making 131 arrests. And it’s not just Sina Weibo; TechinAsia reports that police are also watching Tencent’s WeChat, which is organized mainly around private circles of friends.

But for every big black PR firm bust, authorities also seem to be ensnaring a lot of innocent users of social media.

For example, in late August, a women in Anhui province posted on Sina Weibo that 16 people died in a car accident that had just taken place, when the death toll was only 10. Local police placed her under “administrative detention”
for five days as punishment for “spreading rumors.” In another case, a
20-year-old Anhui woman was imprisoned for posting the comment “I heard
there was a murder in Louzhuang—is there anyone who knows what actually
happened?” on a Baidu discussion board. The post, which was clicked on
1,000 times, counted as “disrupting social order” (link in Chinese).

In late August, a Weibo user stoked online discussion with a post saying that the “five heroes of Langya Mountain”—martyrs in the war against the Japanese who are a source of Communist Party pride—had
actually been army deserters who oppressed the local villagers of
Langya, and that the latter eventually gave them up to the Japanese.
This, determined the local police, “created unhealthy social effects”
(link in Chinese). Authorities arrested and held the Weibo user under
administrative detention for seven days. Something similar happened with
four people who “defamed” the Party mascot, Lei Feng.

The
new clarifications have big implications for harmless online
chatter. If the posts of an amateur historian or inquisitive citizen
garner enough attention, the author could face three years in prison.